The present invention relates to a system and method for replacing a specified area of a present (original) picture with a desired picture. The present invention further relates to a system and method for processing the picture replacement by matching the desired picture to the present picture so that the desired picture appears to have been a part of the present picture.
Accompanied with the recent prosperity of TV broadcasting, a large number of advertisements have appeared on TV. For example, when watching a ball game on TV, viewers see not only the game but also advertisements painted on the fence of the stadium behind ball players, for example, company names, logos, slogans and the like.
There has been such circumstance that only a certain logo is required to be replaced with another logo during rebroadcasting. Or the circumstance has demanded to televise the specified logo at a spot that was originally a blank area during rebroadcasting.
The conventional art has easily allowed a specific logo to replace a predetermined area of a picture. However it has been difficult to execute such replacement quite naturally so that the logo appears to have been a part of the picture. For example, during a baseball game rebroadcast, if the logo shown on the back fence is replaced with another logo, the baseball player standing in front of such logo is also replaced, thus spoiling the whole broadcast.